Fetching Water

One of the things you might see or hear about from this part of the world is children, or adults, carrying jerry cans cans full of water.

It is most common in the villages, where there typically isn’t running water or indoor plumbing. While that is true, simply seeing those images, which often makes it look like it is a struggle for the people carrying them…

lends itself to reinforcing people’s idea and concept of ‘poor Arica,’ “Oh, look at those poor Africans. It’s such a struggle. They don’t have running water and have to walk miles to get it.. We should do something about that to help them.” Or something to that effect. While not discounting that it is in fact hard work, what isn’t associated with it as much as it should be is the pride and joy they often experience doing it.

While we in the West like to make things easier, like a friend of mind once said, the mother of invention is laziness. While there is nothing wrong in of itself with making things easier, in turn it often devalues the benefit of hard work, especially physical labor. In the case of fetching water, being outside and walking in the fresh air, usually with other people, it also lends itself to sharing with each other and those you come across along the way. It doesn’t exactly scream “look at how poor I am.” In fact, I hope that after you see the below video that you might have the opposite perception.